Group Double U Topia

     In a strike of something that could be called either unlucky or highly lucky, earlier this year I came across a TV show airing on Hulu called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I saw that it had won many awards, so I proceeded to watch the trailer. That same night, I logged on to my account with the Champaign Public Library, and immediately requested the TV show, and after a couple of weeks of waiting, I picked it up from the library. Within five minutes, I was absolutely addicted. The show, starring Elizabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, and Joseph Fiennes had won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for a reason. The combination of a great plot, great acting, and great cinematography was unmatched (save for Game of Thrones and Vikings) compared to anything I had ever watched before in the realm of television.     When I came back to school following winter break, Dr. Majerus mentioned that we would be reading the Handmaid’s Tale. My first thought was, “Oh great, no need to do the...

Almost all of the books we are reading in this class are Dystopian fiction, and in general, there is just more dystopian fiction than utopian fiction. This made me think about the reasons for this, and why dystopias are so much more interesting than utopias. Firstly, I tried to determine a central theme or connection between various dystopias, and one thing that most, if not all, dystopian fiction takes one, or a few, elements of modern society, exaggerates them, and combines them to make a new type of society, a dystopia. For example, Huxley did this in Brave New World, with the increasing consumerism and industrialization, as well as the Freudian ideas, of the early 20th century. Additionally, Margaret Atwood has also said that she only drew on real events when writing The Handmaid’s Tale. After seeing this pattern in dystopian fiction, why does it make for a compelling story, and why is there a lack of utopian fiction that follows the same pattern? I think this way of drawing u...

Brave New World was an interesting look into a “futuristic” dystopian world in which nothing was left to chance. Everything had been predetermined by the alphas of the society, ridding the world of feelings and spontaneity, ensuring the uninterrupted flow of tasks without distraction. The approach they took, however, is what struck me as bizarre. Having gained inspiration from Henry Ford, these people above the rest of society developed a system of automated reproduction via industrial means, that took the responsibilities of the person being “manufactured” into account. Instead of allowing everyone an equal chance to succeed and prosper, some were made intentionally worse than others; in terms of looks, intelligence, and more. The alphas created castes and trained everyone made after the New World State was established from birth until the time of maturity at which they could work. Knowing the society would not be able to maintain itself in the way it was designed to, by result of h...